Dismissing the speculations of another lockdown in the national capital in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases, Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain said the city will not be put under any lockdown.
Jain clarified that the third wave of coronavirus has already peaked out. He said, “There is no chance of a lockdown in Delhi.”
State health minister further added, “The peak of Delhi’s third wave is gone, now cases will be reduced gradually,”
Jain also dismissed the speculations about markets being shut and said, “It has not even been considered. The festival is over, the crowds will get thinner now on.”
Delhi, in the last 24 hours has recorded 3,235 new Covid-19 cases, its lowest single-day spike after four weeks. It also recorded 95 fatalities, according to Ministry of Health.
Delhi’s daily Covid-19 case load had begun its upward climb nearly 13 days ago.The highest single-day spike of 8,593 cases was recorded on 11 November and 85 fatalities were recorded that day. On November 12, the number of fatalities was 104, the highest in over five months.
During Diwali, the national capital reported infections dropped to almost half of its past weeks average of nearly 7,000 daily cases as just 21,098 tests were conducted, which is almost a third of the usually 60,000 tests conducted per day in Delhi since its second wave in September.
Union Home Minster met health minster Harsh Vardhan and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and has asked the Delhi government to increase Covid-19 tests to more than 100,000 a day from the current 60,000 amid a surge in cases recently.
The centre has also allotted an additional 250-300 beds that would be used for serious Covid-19 patients. The Delhi High Court last week allows the government to reserve 80 per cent of beds in 33 private hospitals for Covid-19 patients.
As of now, India has more than 88.45 lakh total coronavirus cases. A total of 1.3 lakh deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported.